Today, infusion of fluids (which includes any type of liquid with or without medicaments in liquid form) is mainly controlled by trained medical personnel, such as nurses, that manually set the appropriate dosage by counting drops in a transparent drip chamber and adjusting a regulating valve, which are attached to an infusion tube that connects an infusion bottle with a patient, until the correct flow of fluid is obtained.
The infusion needs to be continuously monitored to ensure that correct dosage is administered to the patient, which requires the medical personnel to regularly check the amount of fluid left in the infusion bottle, and also to check that the flow of fluids is unchanged, e.g. a reduced flow when the infusion tube is squeezed, or an increased flow if the needle inserted into the patient is withdrawn. These tasks are time consuming and as a result, the time interval between each check may vary dependent on the amount of personnel on duty. Consequently, there is a major risk that the wrong dosage of a fluid is administered to a patient between checks, which may cause the patient harm.
In the published utility model CN 201316463, an infusion prompting device is disclosed having a detecting sensor 3 which prompts a flashing light 6 to emit flash lamp light when only a small amount of infuse fluid is left in an infusion bottle. A problem with the described infusion prompting device is that light is rather small and situated on one side of the infusion prompting device. It may be difficult to see the light in case the flashing light is turned away from the nurse making the round, or something (e.g. curtains, ward partitioning walls, etc.) is blocking the view for the nurse.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,643 a drop monitoring unit for infusion sets is disclosed having light indicators in combination with a buzzer which are used to indicate deviation from normal operation. However, the light indicators are rather small and it is therefore difficult to catch the attention of a nurse making the rounds. The combination with the buzzer helps the nurse to identify any problem, but will also disturb the patients nearby.
Thus, there is a need to provide an infusion control device that may further simplify the monitoring tasks for medical personnel.